Game Changing Research

Last year, we unveiled a brand-new research strategy, ‘Taking on research to change the future’, which lays out our roadmap for achieving our ambition of doubling the UK survival rate for people with pancreatic cancer.

We invested over £2.4 million in ground-breaking research, more than ever before.This included launching our £1m Pancreatic Cancer UK Grand Challenge Award, daring the very best researchers and doctors to take on the toughest aspects of the disease.

We investigated a new early diagnosis test

With our funding, Professor Zhengming Chen and Dr Michael Holmes were able to begin researching a new blood test to diagnose pancreatic cancer at an early stage.They hope that the test could be used to identify individuals with pancreatic cancer before they start to experience symptoms, which could allow more people to have surgery and save more lives.

We set up a new Academy for Future Leaders

With £500,000 in funding, Professor Owen Sansom will be leading the Academy and will be supported by a team of world-class investigators. Together, they will provide support, training and mentoring for a group of new students who we hope will become world-leading scientists, and who can bring the breakthroughs of the future to fruition.

We worked to discover new pancreatic cancer drugs

We funded Professor Weiguang Wang, who began work investigating whether a drug that is currently used to stop alcoholics craving a drink could be used to treat pancreatic cancer. By testing a drug that is cheap, safe and already in use, it is hoped that people with pancreatic cancer could start bene ting from the treatment much quicker, even within just a few years.

“With funding from Pancreatic Cancer UK, we’ve made a breakthrough that could potentially change the way pancreatic cancer is treated in the future”Nigel Jamieson,

Pancreatic Cancer UK-funded researcher and Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery, University of Glasgow

Currently the only way to carry out genetic profiling of a pancreatic cancer tumour is to remove it completely. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible for the vast majority of patients, as surgery is complex and most people are not eligible. Without that analysis, however, it is impossible to predict the most effective treatments for each individual patient.

My team and I had wanted to do this research for a long time but, because it was a very speci c project and something that hadn’t been successfully done before, very few funding bodies were prepared to take a chance on us.

Thankfully, Pancreatic Cancer UK were able to invest, and they awarded my team a grant from their Research Innovation Fund.

And that was the right decision. For the rst time ever, we were able to do detailed analysis on a patient’s genome using a sample taken through endoscopic ultrasound ne needle aspiration. It’s a huge breakthrough, and one that could potentially change the way pancreatic cancer is treated in the future.

Without Pancreatic Cancer UK’s funding, our research would not have been possible and we would not have been able to prove our concept worked. Their initial investment has also enabled us to secure major further funding from other organisations, allowing us to continue our work going forward through the Precision PANCstudy.

Your support makes our game-changing research possible. Please support us and help fund the breakthroughs that will transform the future for everyone with pancreatic cancer.Get involved today